The director of the Qui Nhon Normal School was Nguyen Truong Luong, a workaholic and a graduate of the University of Miami in Florida. He and Casper made a list of ways our civic action fund might help the students. Immediately, it became apparent that a scholarship program would be very appropriate. The director and adviser reported that a monthly scholarship of 2,000 piasters ($17) per month would be sufficient. To choose 10 scholarship students, they developed selection guidelines starting with the students’ needs and potential. If possible, students were to be selected from different sections of the country.

The school set up a committee consisting of staff, teachers and students to select those who would receive the scholarships. More than 200 applied. After reviewing the applications and screening the applicants, the committee selected three second-year students and seven first-year students — three women and seven men.

A date was set for awarding the scholarships, and Lt. Col. William F. McCormick Jr. made the presentations before an audience of students and GIs. Phan B’I, one of the scholarship recipients, spoke on behalf of the 10 students. ‘We will work to try to be worthy of your trust in us,’ he said. Each month the 10 students would receive their scholarships. American soldiers of the participating units took pride in the fact that their assistance would reach children in the schools of hamlets, villages, towns and cities as the graduates became teachers.

Some grumbling about the scholarship program did develop among a few men in one company. Reports reached the council that they resented helping male students through school because they felt those men ought to be in the South Vietnamese army. I was asked to explain to them that although male students were deferred for two years in order to finish their training at the normal school and for one year after graduation in order to do a year of teaching, they were subject to draft into the army for a period of four years — which often extended indefinitely. With their education and ability, most of them would become ARVN officers. One Vietnamese graduate told me that he had been a lieutenant in the army for nine years and could not get out for any cause other than death or disability. After my explanation, the American soldiers were reminded that contributing to the civic action fund was completely voluntary. There was no decrease in contributions.

News of the unit’s normal school scholarship program spread rapidly. Other units conducted civic action work, and the topic was always a subject of discussion at meetings of chaplains from various units. At regular meetings of military and civilian personnel, the normal school scholarship program was discussed as a community relations project. One Vietnamese faculty member said that it was one of the most helpful projects in furthering Vietnamese and American relations. Other units began giving scholarships through their civic action programs, and before long, 93 students at the normal school were on scholarships provided by the GIs.

Christmas Eve 1966 was one of the best days many of us had in Vietnam. Long before the day arrived, members of our civic action fund committee had been looking for a good children’s project for Christmas. Without question, we would have a party for the children at Vien Duc Anh Bae Ae orphanage.

It dawned on us that we had a perfect opportunity to give a Christmas party for children at the normal school as well. More than 300 children between the ages of 6 and 12 were being included in the teaching students’ demonstration classes. These children, the poorest of the poor, were getting the only formal education available to them by being involved in the practice-teaching effort. Luong and his staff approved the idea and worked with the GIs to put together one of the most thrilling parties any of us had ever attended, especially the children.

The party was held on a Saturday afternoon, Christmas Eve. The school staff and students were to bring the children, provide a part of the program, oversee and maintain order. We would decorate and provide toys, refreshments and Santa Claus himself.

All the children, students and staff of the school, along with many GIs, attended the party. The children were orderly even though very excited. Following the program, they were stunned by the entrance of Santa Claus — alias our Vietnamese-speaking S-3, or operations officer, wearing a Santa Claus suit borrowed from Special Services. Imagine the children’s surprise when old Santa started speaking to them in their own language. They sat on the edge of their chairs; their eyes, already big, got bigger, and their ears were all perked. They laughed and squealed with joy.

Next, to their amazement, Santa’s helpers — young Vietnamese men and women, along with smiling U.S. soldiers — began passing out brand-new toys taken from under a brightly lit Christmas tree. These toys, which our executive officer had bought with civic action funds on a trip to Hong Kong, were the first new ones any of the children had ever received.What did the American GIs get out of this party? Perhaps it was best expressed by one of the soldiers. As we walked back to the compound together, he said, ‘You know, I thought this was going to be the worst Christmas in my life, and it has been the best!’

The next day, Christmas, the 10 scholarship students joined the GIs for dinner in the mess halls of the units. The students wrote letters of appreciation to the men who had helped them through that school year.

The scholarship program also received special praise from the higher command, including Brig. Gen. Robert D. Terry, commanding general of the 1st Signal Brigade, and Colonel Hunter L. Sharp, commander of 21st Signal Group. Colonel Sharp commented that it was ‘an excellent example [of]…what can be accomplished by enthusiastic people who are interested in helping others to help themselves.’

Not long ago I flew over Vietnam on a commercial air flight. As I looked down, memories returned of the Vietnamese people whose lives were touched in 1966-67 by American GIs. Where were the adults now who had been children of Vien Duc Anh Bae Ae orphanage? Did the Amerasian children survive, and did any of them meet their fathers? Do people suffering from leprosy still live in the houses constructed for them by the American units?

And what about the people from the normal school? In a 1967 Christmas card from the American education adviser, I learned that two students had been killed by the VC, and two others were wounded while practice-teaching in the village school. Director Nguyen Truong Luong later went to the United States and studied at Cornell University for a doctorate, returning to his country long before the Americans pulled out. But what has happened to those scholarship students? Do the children who had such a good time at the 1966 Christmas party at the normal school ever think of that time? Do any of them ever remember the GIs and wish they would come back?

My bet would be yes.

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The article was written by Chaplain Paul N. Mitchell and originally published in the June 2005 issue of Vietnam Magazine. While in Vietnam, Chaplain Mitchell’s primary duty was to minister to the troops in his assigned units. He retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel.

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